


take a sip of my secret potion (i'll make you fall in love)

by royalvoeu



Category: Produce X 101 - Fandom, UNIQ (Band), UP10TION
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Friendship/Love, M/M, Strangers to Lovers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-17
Updated: 2020-05-17
Packaged: 2021-03-02 21:34:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,190
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24233656
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/royalvoeu/pseuds/royalvoeu
Summary: It all started with Seungyoun (maybe not so badly) messed up Jinhyuk’s order.
Relationships: Cho Seungyeon | Seungyoun/Lee Jinhyuk, Cho Seungyoun | Seungyoun/Lee Jinhyuk
Kudos: 20





	take a sip of my secret potion (i'll make you fall in love)

Regrets always came last and Jinhyuk never wanted to beat the hell out of his past-self more than anything right now.

He clearly remembered thinking it would be okay to put away the stack of papers waiting to be read and the one out of minimum ten pages review waiting to be finished on his laptop the past four evenings to start binge-watching a new anime his sister recommended. He also thought it’d be equally okay to repeat the same cycle the next evening, the next evening, until yesterday came and he realized he messed up big time.

_Literally._

Dr. Han’s Intercultural Communication class has successfully taken most of his study time (and life span, perhaps) during his first three weeks of fourth semester, yet it still didn’t dawn on Jinhyuk that he needed even _more_ than most of his study time to finish whatever assignment the lecturer gave the class at least until yesterday.

Complaining to his classmate turned best friend Byungchan clearly didn’t help, because he was by far more responsible and obviously had more sane braincells to work on his own assignments at least three days before the due date ever since the first day of their freshman year.

Byungchan probably had enough of Jinhyuk’s flimsy excuses and helpless stares of help that this morning he finally yelled something along the line of _I don’t care. You go fail Dr. Han’s class alone, I’m never helping you again!_ at him and although Jinhyuk knew he didn’t really mean that, he knew he had to help himself first to gain his good side back.

So here Jinhyuk was now, 10 AM on a Sunday morning, sitting down in one of Ediya Coffee’s window-facing seat with skull-splitting headache, twenty pages journal to read and (now) two out of minimum ten pages review to finish for the lovely Dr. Han’s 7.30 AM class next day.

Byungchan finally texted him twenty minutes ago that he’d come and help but in all honesty, Jinhyuk just hoped his self-hatred were enough to force him finish the assignments on time. 

The pager on Jinhyuk’s table buzzed as he was mindlessly flipping the print-outs—trying to self-hypnotize himself that he has been through this circle of hell and regret lots of time and he of course could do it again today—and he got up to pick up his order, iced caramel macchiato with raspberry syrup. He wasn’t so much of a caffeine dependent person, but Byungchan made him drink this once (preceded with a nagging: “Aren’t you bored of your weird mojito and grapefruit ade?”) and he got hooked on immediately.

Jinhyuk thanked the barista on the counter, a guy around his age in a well-fitted black polo t-shirt and brown apron and very well-trained smile, then went back to his table. Ediya Coffee in the morning was quieter than he thought, probably because it was Sunday and nobody was insane enough to drag their asses off to do works as early as 10 AM.

*

“Here’s mine. Copy them but don’t make it too obvious. This will be the last time, I’m warning you for real,” Byungchan pushed a small flash drive to Jinhyuk as he sat down at the seat next to Jinhyuk, a permanent scowl on his face. “And not sure if someone has told you this but you honestly look like death,” He added in a beat.

“Death probably looks even better than me _,_ ” Jinhyuk mumbled under his breath.

“Also, stop looking for me every time you make miserable life choices like deciding to do everything last minute like these assignments. You’re lucky I’m an exemplary student with big, big, big heart.”

Jinhyuk grimaced, both from the bite of his best friend’s words—he understood perfectly Byungchan was one hundred percent not wrong and he definitely had no rights to refute—and from the sudden uninvited sharp pain on his stomach. The pain soon grew a little bit too much to handle and he started feeling nauseous, and Jinhyuk _cursed_ under his breath _._

He _knew_ what this meant.

“Byungchan,” He took a shaky breath, clutching on his stomach.

  
“What? I’ve put everything in that flash drive you just have to copy and paraphrase so Dr. Han wouldn’t know you—wait, you good?” He grabbed Jinhyuk’s arm quickly, eyebrows meeting in the middle, watching as huge cold beads of sweat formed on his best friend’s forehead. “Hey, what happened? What did you order?”

Byungchan’s eyes darted to the food on the table, eyeing the remaining crumbs of Jinhyuk’s vegan cookies and a half full glass of iced caramel macchiato.

“Did you ask for soy milk?” He groaned.

“I did, of course, _fuck._ Get me water.”

“You fool, if you did ask then how did you get sick like this- Okay, water.”

“I don’t know, _fucker_ , I told the barista twice I wanted soy milk,”

“You were half-sick in the head maybe you messed up your order- _fuck,_ wait here. Don’t die on me yet.”

Jinhyuk wanted to curse at Byungchan more but he fled almost too quickly to ask for a glass of water—at least something to calm Jinhyuk’s stomach down. Jinhyuk honestly felt his whole body grew cold and stomach started to get cramps, and the iced caramel macchiato in front of him stopped looking appetizing all at once.

Someone, maybe it was the barista or perhaps Jinhyuk himself messed up the order and forgot to change the usual milk to soy milk, and here he was left pathetically with the consequences: uncomfortable ache on his stomach and nauseous feeling—courtesy of his inability to digest lactose.

“Here, water. Quick, drink. I’ll ask who the hell made your order,” Byungchan came back while stomping his feet, grabbing Jinhyuk’s iced caramel macchiato and went back to the counter again.

Then everything went completely chaotic in a matter of seconds: Byungchan walking back to Jinhyuk’s table with an obvious angered expression while nagging in a hushed voice—Thank God he still had some sense—and following closely behind him, the barista from before, colors drained from his face, hands clasped tightly in front and eyes darting everywhere nervously. If it wasn’t for the painful jabs on his stomach, Jinhyuk would find the situation funny.

“You didn’t mess up the order. Check the receipt. This guy,” Byungchan pointed at the barista beside him with a flick of his chin, “Did mess up. Pouring the usual milk _out of habit_ , without double checking your receipt.”

The barista’s fox-like eyes landed on him, and Jinhyuk thought he looked even paler than before if possible. In another circumstances, Jinhyuk would honestly thought he looked cute, like _madly_ cute, but this wasn’t another circumstances and his stomach was screaming in agony.

“I’m sorry—I have no excuses, it was my fault, completely my fault. Are you okay, uh, Sir? What can I help you with? I can run to the pharmacy to get digestive medicine—what kind do you usually take?” The barista’s eyes were welling up, and he couldn’t stop rambling.

“No-wait, don’t cry,” Jinhyuk frowned, and the barista quickly shook his head, sniffling. “I’m not crying! Just—let me help, let me fix this. Will you please wait I’ll get you the medicine, any kind will do, I suppose? And I’ll change your drink, anything you want-“

Jinhyuk raised one hand, stopping Byungchan from answering on behalf of him, and although he could feel his stomachache slowly getting worse, he knew there wasn’t really anything he could do to fix this except for letting the pain died down by itself. “Forget it. I’m lactose intolerant, the only thing I can do is avoiding dairies, but _shit_ happened—” (The barista winced a little at this.) “—and I’ll just drink water and just, wait until the dairy goes off completely from my digestive system to make the pain die down. No big deal.”

“You… Don’t need to go see a doctor?” The barista squeaked, and Jinhyuk somehow started feeling bad for getting sick.

“I’ll go see one when it gets too unbearable. I only drank half of the drink, so I suppose I will be okay.” Jinhyuk reassured.

“I’m really sorry—” The barista started again, but Byungchan interrupted quickly, “We got it. Please give him water and perhaps some warm drink—no, not coffee, we don’t want the same accident to happen again, no offense, tea will be good I guess, without milk, you heard me?—and just let him rest for a while. Think you can leave your number for us?” He grabbed Jinhyuk’s phone on the table casually, unlocking it before looking up at the man before him, only to see his confused expression that Jinhyuk also equally wore.

Byungchan clicked his tongue impatiently. “Just in case he needs to see a doctor. I’ll have to let you know, right?” He explained, and the barista nodded quickly, muttering numbers to Byungchan nervously.

“And your name is?”

“I’m Seungyoun—Cho Seungyoun.”

*

“Glad we don’t have to take a detour to the hospital.” Byungchan muttered, crossing his arms behind his head as he leaned back to one of Jinhyuk’s fluffiest pillow on his bed. They were back to Jinhyuk’s dorm room now, after spending a good one hour trying to ignore his stomachache while writing his review (Jinhyuk) and playing with his phone waiting for his friend to be healthy enough to walk back home (Byungchan).

“I told you and _him_ that I’m going to be fine.” Jinhyuk rolled his eyes. It wasn’t like Byungchan wouldn’t know it—there had been multiple minor accidents where he consumed dairies without noticing but there had been none that ended up in a bad way.

“Hey, I was only trying to let him know that it is a fatal mistake to mess up your customer’s order. Maybe he’s lucky now he messed up your order, one that didn’t necessarily affect your health and wellbeing, but what if one day he put hazelnut syrup to someone who has bad allergy of peanuts? That someone could choke, suffocate, getting itchy, or maybe something even worse?” Byungchan eagerly explained, and Jinhyuk thought though he put it way too exaggerated like that, he really did have a point.

A thought suddenly dawned on Jinhyuk.

“Should I text him that I’m okay?” 

Byungchan shrugged, now busy punching Jinhyuk’s olaf plushie mindlessly. “It’s up to you. If it was me I’d wait a while to make him panic a little—just so he knows this is not a light matter,”

“You’re mean.”

“I’m taking it as a compliment.”

Jinhyuk shook his head in disbelief, but he fished out his phone anyway to text the poor, pale nervous barista a heads up that he was okay already. He tried to ignore the contact name Byungchan had put it for him.

**To: Cho Seungyoun (The barista who fucked up your order)**

**This is the customer who got an order messed up this morning.**

**Just texting to let you now I’m okay and I don’t need to go see a doctor.**

**Don’t worry.**

*

Enrolling in Dr. Han’s Intercultural Communication class with mandatory biweekly journals reviews was one thing, but having to produce an anthology of essays with 1/5 of the class on top of that dreadful journal review routine was another thing. What made it worse was that Jinhyuk missed the chance of being in the same group with Byungchan because he was out for a bathroom break the moment Dr. Han arranged the groups.

Not that working with Sejin, Wooseok, and the other three girls (What’s that bob haired girl’s name again? Jinhyuk wasn’t very good in remembering names, mind you.) seemed bad, he just thought having Byungchan around would feel less-burdening. (He was lowkey clingy, but let’s pretend we didn’t know that.).

“Ediya Coffee,” Jinhyuk hummed, looking at his phone screen. His group decided to meet up and do some works at the said café down the street, close enough to both the university building and the dorms. Sejin, the group leader, decided to hold the meeting in about an hour and since Jinhyuk had nothing better to do (and one chapter of Schiavo’s Health Communication book to read), he decided to come early to the promised place.

Bag slinging on his left shoulder and phone on his right hand, Jinhyuk pushed the door to the café and headed straight to order a hot peach tea. A hot one because he felt quite sniffly due to the abrupt change in weather the past three days, and tea, because, he couldn’t be way too careful about the previous accident here, right?

The queue wasn’t long and Jinhyuk got his tea without having to wait with a pager. He muttered a thank you to the barista and turned to pick a seat when he felt something solid and rash suddenly ram into him and a stinging hot liquid burning his hand.

“ _Fuck,_ what now—” Jinhyuk hissed, holding his half empty tea cup above his head—not that it mattered now, his hand has already been burned, thank you very much—and looked up, more than prepared to antagonize the culprit because he knew it wasn’t his fault _at all._ He was walking perfectly slowly, taking his time when this someone just decided to burn his hand—in a literal sense of meaning.

“Oh—”

The guy—it was the barista from before, the same guy who messed up his order—looked like he just encountered death, a broom in one hand and dustpan in another, and pale, panicked expression on his face. Jinhyuk could see the downturn of his lips clearly, and was he about to cry again?

“Oh my God—Sir, I’m sorry, really. Come—I’ll have to treat your wound,” Seungyoun pulled Jinhyuk’s better hand to sit at the nearest table, moving so quick to the back of the counter, followed by an upset gaze from the barista that made Jinhyuk’s order. Seungyoun came back rushing, broom and dustpan changed to first aid kit on his hands.

“I’m really, sorry,” Seungyoun squeaked, rustling to get whatever it was from the aid kit, his eyes widened and slightly watery. He gently pulled Jinhyuk’s red hand, and the latter just sat there wordlessly as he watched Seungyoun applying what seemed like a soothing gel to the burning wound.

“Do you have something against me?”

Seungyoun’s eyes went wider at the question, almost dropping the soothing gel tube in the process. “No! Of course no, Sir.” He nibbled on his bottom lip in worry, studying Jinhyuk’s back of the hand carefully.

“Well it seems like you do. First, you triggered my lactose intolerance, and second, you burn my hand. Did we meet in the past? Did I upset you that time?”

“No, it’s nothing like that.” Seungyoun sighed, peering up at Jinhyuk. “I don’t have any excuses, it’s all my fault, but really, I have nothing against you.”

Jinhyuk took one look at his now cooled down hand, feeling the soothing gel doing its job, then looked back at the pale Seungyoun before him again.

“I don’t know why I keep doing that to you, but I really, really didn’t mean any of that.” Seungyoun didn’t wait for Jinhyuk’s response and started rambling again. He had his hands on the first aid kit’s handle, clicking mindlessly as he glanced around nervously.

Jinhyuk heaved out a sigh. “Please be more careful next time.”

“Yes, Sir, of course.”

“You’re making me sound like an old man. I’m probably around your age. My name is Jinhyuk, Lee Jinhyuk. Just call me by my name.”

“Ah, yes.” Seungyoun paused. “I’m sorry, really. I’m usually not that clumsy.”

“It’s fine.” Jinhyuk found his smile back this time. “And, Seungyoun, I think you should probably get going. The barista at the counter has been sending you death glares.”

Seungyoun winced at that, knowing full well what was going to happen to him, and Jinhyuk found it funny.

(Did Jinhyuk mention Seungyoun was kind of cute already?)

“I’ll change your drink. Please wait for a while.” Seungyoun got up, wiping his hands hastily on his apron. “Peach tea? A warm one.” He murmured again, more to himself.

“Nah, get me a cold one, but with less ice.” Jinhyuk interjected fast. “I’m staying here, I’m having a study group. Just take it easy. I know you’ll have a lot to, uh, do.”

Seungyoun surprisingly smiled at that, his eyes changed completely to crescent moon shape and he gave an easy laugh. “Thanks, Jinhyuk. I’ll get you your new drink as soon as possible.”

Jinhyuk nodded with a small grin himself, watching as Seungyoun’s back got further.

Suddenly having his hand burnt didn’t feel too bad at the moment.

*

“Seems like I have to leave you alone to _suffer_ here.” Byungchan locked his phone and pushed it down his blazer pocket, quickly shoving his pencil case and notebooks down his bag.

Jinhyuk looked up from his textbook and frowned, brow furrowed in the middle. It was a week after they finished the group project assignment for the one and only Dr. Han, and they were back with another big thing to tackle: a pre-midterm test.

(“ _Who in the right mind_ _would make a pre-midterm test a thing? That’s ridiculous_.” Jinhyuk hissed once Dr. Han was out of the class. “Tell that to Dr. Han, then.” Byungchan answered, very helpfully, since he clearly didn’t need longer study hours to understand whatever it was that the lecturer has taught them.)

Jinhyuk and Byungchan had promised to study together today at Ediya Coffee like usual, but Byungchan seemed more than ready to leave right now.

“Where are you going? Didn’t you say you were going to teach me this chapter?” Jinhyuk pointed at a not-so-heavily highlighted page of his textbook, and Byungchan rolled his eyes at that. “I told you to read the goddamn chapter yesterday so you can ask me stuff you don’t understand today but you chose not to, so I choose not to teach you too,”

Jinhyuk wrinkled his nose, about to kick Byungchan from under their table but the latter moved so fast. “Seungwoo hyung is done with his TA duty earlier. I’m going out with him.” He said, Jinhyuk almost told him _That’s a TMI I don’t want to hear—_ but then he remembered Dr. Han’s test tomorrow and the possibility of him not getting any answers from Byungchan if he made him upset now—but settled on giving his best friend a forced smile instead.

“Yeah, go have fun with your boyfriend while you leave your best friend rotting away here. And when you see me scoring better than you then you’ll see,” He begrudgingly said.

“It’s just a pre-midterm test, not the real midterm one. You’ll be okay. Besides, isn’t it good to score higher than me?” Byungchan paused. “Only if you are able to, though.”

“You’re insufferable,”

“You love me anyway,” Byungchan grinned, satisfied, getting up to pat Jinhyuk on the shoulder then walk out of the café in long strides.

The urge to just ditch studying and join (read: ruin) his best friend’s date was big, but the thoughts of scoring a big C (or worse, D) for Dr. Han’s class was more terrifying, so Jinhyuk pulled out his Galaxy buds and prayed he could stuff his brain all the important materials from the seven weeks worth of Intercultural Communication class in less than twelve hours.

The music he played to cancel the noise around did seem to do its job properly, Jinhyuk had gone full forty minutes without getting distracted, seriously sticking his nose on his book, flagging some important pages and highlighting terms he knew he needed to remember. It wasn’t until he heard a soft thud someone was making on his table did he look up.

A venti-sized iced peach tea drink just magically appeared there beside his open pocket-sized planner.

Jinhyuk removed his earbuds and looked up to see who put the drink on his table, and almost broke to an unnecessary foolish wide smile when he saw _him._

Seungyoun was there, hands tucked in his jacket’s pockets, swaying on his heels with a small grin on his visage, looking abashed and awkward. He nodded towards the drink. “My treat.”

Jinhyuk took one look at the drink and back to Seungyoun, suddenly forgetting how to function a little. “Right. I mean. Well, uh, thanks.”

“Very welcome. Mind if I sit?” Seungyoun rocking on his heels, gesturing to the empty seat Byungchan had occupied forty minutes ago. He didn’t wait for Jinhyuk’s answer though, and instead dropping his own belongings on the seat facing Jinhyuk and settled on sitting next to him.

“You start studying for midterm earlier than anyone I know around,” Seungyoun commented playfully, albeit sheepishly, his cheeks a shade of pink darker than they usually were.

Jinhyuk winced at the question. “I have a crazy professor of a lecturer, he has an obsession with assignments and quizzes. These,” He gestured at his messy table. “Are all for a pre-midterm test studying. Can you believe it? He made a pre-test for a midterm,”

Seungyoun seemed to loosen up a bit at Jinhyuk’s remark. “Can’t think of anything worse than that, honestly.”

“I know, right. Dr. Han might seem angelic and all, but I’m pretty sure it was just a disguise to lure us into his trap.”

“Dr. Han?” Seungyoun’s brows met in the middle, eyes carefully scanning the books on the table as he seemed to suddenly come to a conlusion.

“You’re a Communication major?”

Jinhyuk nodded absentmindedly, moving his things a little to give Seungyoun more space. He thought Seungyoun was there not to work—he had no uniforms on and seemed to just came out from his own class. 

“I guess you know Yuvin and Kookheon?”

“My classmates since freshman. Wait—No shit. You’re friends with them?” Jinhyuk lit up at the mention of familiar names.

Seungyoun let out a hearty laugh. “I happen to share the same flat with them. Never thought they'd know the person I told them I almost accidentally K-word not only once, but twice,”

Jinhyuk shot him an amused gaze.

“I’m Music Composition major, anyway. Yuvin is my highschool friend, and Kookheon has been stuck with me since we were born. I wanted to pursue Communication too,” Seungyoun paused. “But I think my brain loves music better,”

“Hey, that’s cool. I’ve never had a friend from that department. What have you been doing since freshman? Made lots of music?”

“I sure did. Most of them go to the trash bin of my own computer though. Not good enough, not catchy enough, not easy-listening enough.”

“Seems tough,” Jinhyuk grimaced with a sudden shiver, imagining getting enrolled to the said major with a brain that never seemed to understand the creative process of making arts like his. 

“Not as tough as having biweekly twenty pages journal review assignments and occasional pop quizzes plus group essays to work on, I guess.”

“You’re right. I might have regretted not pursuing music like you do.” 

Seungyoun laughed easily at that, and Jinhyuk didn’t think he had ever been more endeared. Long gone the air of awkwardness between them, all that was left was the eagerness to get to know each other better.

“You play some intruments, then?”

“Plenty.”

Jinhyuk couldn’t stop smiling, he didn’t know why.

“Guitars, I bet? I get the feeling lots of music majors can play them. And piano?”

“I’d love to tell you more but I don’t want to disturb you,” Seungyoun interjected with an apologetic gaze. He tilted his head knowingly, gesturing at Jinhyuk’s untouched pile of notes. “Besides, I’ll have to start my shift soon.”

Jinhyuk groaned, not wanting to get back into his study. “Man. I was slowly starting to forget the hell I’m going to face tomorrow though. Why must you bring me back to the reality now?”

Seungyoun laughed again, his eyes crinkled and head thrown back. “At least I got you this, cheer up a bit.” He glanced at the refreshing drink. “But hey. I’m only replacing the first hour of my friend’s shift, I think I can get back here soon. And I’ll have to study too—you don’t mind me joining you, right?”

“No—Of course I don’t mind.” Jinhyuk shook his head slowly, and Seungyoun beamed at that. “Well then. I’ll get going first. I’ll tell you everything that you’re curious about my major later. See you?” He raised from his seat and took his bag, looking at Jinhyuk intently with a twinkling gaze, and Jinhyuk almost turned away, feeling his face heating up.

Seungyoun threw him a slight smile and once again Jinhyuk was left looking at his back as it went further and further, but this time with a bigger smile etched on his lips. The thoughts of spending more time with Seungyoun strangely excited him, and maybe, _just maybe_ , getting his stomach hurt from unexpected lactose intake and his hand burned were worth it after all.

( _Well maybe only if it was Seungyoun who did all that to him.)_

**Author's Note:**

> hi, i'm back with another self-indulgent content of my favorite ̶d̶e̶a̶d̶ ship. this one is definitely a lot lighter and with no serious plot or ending, (you can tell i love writing open endings by now) but i hope you are still able to enjoy this. 
> 
> also, i've done a research in the lactose intolerance part (through trustworthy google and my own friend who is a medical student), but if i happen to miss some details, please do let me know in the comment so i can change it. 
> 
> thank you for stopping by!


End file.
